The city has no right to fire its trash-talking imam because his inflammatory remarks weren’t confidential and he was speaking on his own time, said his new lawyer, civil-rights activist Norm Siegel.

Imam Umar Abdul-Jalil, executive director of ministerial services for the city’s Department of Correction, was suspended Thursday for claiming Muslims were being tortured in city jails, and that “the greatest terrorists in the world occupy the White House.”

A recording of his remarks was given to The Post, after he spoke at a conference sponsored by the Muslim Students Association in Tucson, Ariz., last April.

The imam, who is paid $76,602 a year and supervises 40 chaplains, is on paid leave while his remarks are investigated.

But firing Abdul-Jalil won’t hold up in court because the law is clear, and government workers’ rights have been upheld many times, Siegel said.

“The First Amendment says public employees off the job can speak on issues of public concern,” said Siegel. “It’s protected.”

I’m confident once all the facts are analyzed that the city and mayor will do the right thing,” he said, adding that Mayor Bloomberg appears to recognize the imam’s freedom-of-speech rights.